Think of it as the Samsung BlackJack II on steroids. The Epix i907 on ATT is a 3G QWERTY bar Windows Mobile Professional phone with a 320 x 320 pixel flush touch screen. It has a fast 624MHz CPU, yet it's got very good battery life. There's plenty of memory on board along with WiFi, a strong GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo and a 2 megapixel camera. It plays CV, ATT's streaming media service, and comes with a nice bundle of Samsung applications. One of our Fall favorites.

I just got an EPIX and I must say I LOVE IT! I have been using a tilt for about 6 months and it was really great, but the Epix is fantastic. The extra CPU juice makes it feel much quicker.

I have noticed one problem, perhaps you came across it during your review process. While in standby, the Epix fails to sound audible alerts or vibrate for new email notifications. SMS notifications work but email doesn't! I am sure that this will be addressed in the future and the phone is so great in every other aspect that I am learning to tolerate this problem.

I have to say that I thought the finger mouse was a gimmick but after using it for a couple of days, I find it's almost faster to navigate with...imagine that!

The flush screen is a real nice touch as well, but I have found that the edges are a bit tough to hit with a finger....the stylus still works better in some cases.

I think after a minor software release or two, this will be one tough phone to beat!

Hey Carson! Yes, I noticed that email notification glitch and mentioned it in our review. I hope Samsung will fix it since it's important to be notified of new emails even when the phone is in standby.

And I have to agree that the mouse rocks... even though I feel like I'm petting the phone when I use it .

Ah...you did mention it in the review...and I missed it! That's what I get for skimming over the article! Here I thought I caught a bug you didn't know about....I should have known! Great review, very thorough.

Can the reviewer please elaborate on this statement?"While we were underwhelmed with the i780's sensor in mouse mode, we love it on the Epix i907. It's accurate, has proper sensitivity (adjustable via a control panel applet) and works well in documents and web pages."Do you guys have a review on the i780? I would like to know the difference between these two phones.

Thanks

P.S. why can't I use my GMail or Hotmail accounts to create a username? Browsed through the FAQs and found no answer.

We had an i780 but did not publish a review of it. It was a little off the radar here in the US being triband (no 850MHz) and no US 3G. Assuming you're in the US, the lack of 850MHz is a deal breaker, especially if on AT&T.

As the reviewer stated in this..."While we were underwhelmed with the i780's sensor in mouse mode, we love it on the Epix i907. It's accurate, has proper sensitivity (adjustable via a control panel applet) and works well in documents and web pages."

On the i907 the touch pad feels natural to use and functions well: it does what I want and is easy to control. On the i780 the cursor doesn't allows follow smoothly and accurately and the speed is hard to control-- i.e.: I feel like it doesn't always do what I want.

I don't actually know if we block Hotmail and Gmail addresses, but if we do, I presume it is an anti-spam measure. If I could, I would block Hotmail from everything, everywhere , but I can see how blocking Gmail might frustrate some folks.

We don't block Hotmail but a few weeks ago we had to start blocking gmail forum registrations due to hackers flooding other boards and ours with new registrations so they could post utterly nasty things. My apologies to those who legitimately use Gmail. Hopefully once the craze has ended we'll be able to allow gmail registrations again.

Can you elaborate a bit on the GPS and using third-party apps such as Garmin or TomTom? For example, will the GPS work without ANY data plan whatsoever? Would the GPS work without a SIM card in the device? This always seems to be a point of contention among the various devices because it's not clear whether satellite and/or cell tower info must be downloaded in order to get the GPS going.

Using Garmin XT Mobile, the phone's radio has to be on. It does not use data (the cell connection and data transfer icons in the top menu bar do not show any data being transferred, nor does it start a connection to MediaNet). But the device uses aGPS, which means tower triangulation-- it needs checks to see the nearest cell towers the phone is connected to in order to get a location fix. So you must have a SIM in the phone and the phone's radio must be turned on, but it does not use the data connection. It merely looks at the currently active set of cell towers used for voice.

Awesome answer! Thanks for clarifying that. So I guess that one drawback is that you cannot use the GPS unless you're in range of a cell tower. That severely limits the usefulness of the GPS if you're driving around in areas that don't have suitable cell coverage. I can live with that, I suppose. But more importantly, I'm not required to have an expensive data plan just to use the GPS. Yay!

I like the i-907. It is a great PDA. I am still trying to understand the GPS receiver. The Samsung PDF calls it "GPS", ie: satellite based. A post on this forum calls it "aGPS", ie: cell tower triangulation based. I downloaded and installed Google Maps for Mobile. It will display your location with a Blue Dot, and it is close - maybe within a few 100 yards. Then, select "Menu > Use GPS" and a window appears in the upper right corner "Seeking GPS satellites". When it reports the satellites being received, the displayed location is right on target. Therefore the question, is it GPS or aGPS? I installed Street Atlas 2008 Handheld on the i-907. Street Atlas cannot find the GPS receiver. And I cannot find a method to identify the COM Port the GPS receiver is using.